Holy Matrimony

Gen 2:24 ‌ and they shall become one flesh.

HOLY MATRIMONY

Marriage in the Beginning •

intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws.... God himself is the author of marriage." …

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1607

1603 "The

… As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were distorted by mutual recriminations; • their mutual attraction, the Creator's own gift, changed into a relationship of domination and lust; • and the beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work.

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1608 ….

To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them. Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the beginning."

Marriage in the Beginning • 1609 ...After the fall, marriage helps to overcome selfabsorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving. • 1614 In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning. Permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts. The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."

Sacrifice & Grace • 1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy …

• It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ. …

• 1616 This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her," ...

• 1617 ... Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant.

Celebration of Marriage • 1621 In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, ...It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, ... • 1623 According to the Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church.

The Marriage Bond & Holiness •

1640 Thus

the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. … The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.

• What is the “marriage bond” ultimately intended for?

• 1641 … By this grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children.“ • Marriage is ultimately not about self but about the other (both spouse and children) and desiring and working for their greatest good, which is eternal beatitude (seeing God face to face).

The Fidelity of Conjugal Love • 1646 By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. ...The "intimate union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them."

• 1647 The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony the spouses are enabled to represent this fidelity and witness to it. ...

• We image the Blessed Trinity in our marriages

The Openness to Fertility • 1652 "By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory." • Children are the supreme gift of marriage ...Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.

Primary Educators • 1653 ‌ Parents are the principal and first educators of their children. In this sense the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life. • 1654 Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice.

The Domestic Church • 1656 In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. ‌ It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children.� ...